FURNISHING IN THREE CENTURIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19032, 9 June 1924, Page 7

FURNISHING IN THREE CENTURIES.

“PERIOD” BOOMS AT Antimacassars or jazz? / The visitor to the British Emyfire Exhibition at Wembley Park will find this question confronting him w/hen he explores the treasure house icmown officially as the Palace of Arts (writes Sir Percival Phillips in the /Daily mail). / Ono of the many in usual exhibits is a series of five “period" roouhs illustrating the rise and decline-J-or decline and rise, if you will—ox taste in house furnishing from the /middle of the 18th century onwariis. Having seen them all he will be/ inclined to wonder if we have reAliy progressed very far since early Victorian days. There is a room containing the grim relics of 1852. n'ou know them. Heavy draperies »and goldfish. Canaries. A fat Bletjheim spaniel coiled before the fire licke a tired whiting. Gloomy engravjrhgs. Solid comfort en-| compassed tvy dulness. And yet—having dining-room of 1924, with its/plaster walls crying aloud in brilliant colours—the very spirit of jaza* —the critical traveller, who has paissed through one and three-quarter oienturies of domestic art, may well ask whether the modern home as depicted there is preferable to the specimen perpetuating the age of Antimacassars.

There are three other “period” rooms as distinctive but representing less violent extremes. That of 1750 is restful and dignified, its companion, filled with Regency furniture and hangings, shows the changes wrought by 65 intervening years. The dining-room of 1885 will evoke ' wistful smiles. Morris tapestries form the background of Jimson chairs and '.Philip Webb settees. A Holman Hunt h\angs over the fireplace. Even the glkiss and china on the table set for dinne'fr Tbcalft the aesthetic days of the Burnc Jones period. A FEAST OF ART. The Palace of Art*, is one of the largest modern art gtiifdi’es ever erected in this country at one *tfime. Four-fifths of its space will be voted to the work of British artists from 1750, and the remainder of the main building to that of artists from' the Dominions.

Two galleries will contained a retrospective collection beginning with Hogarth. The organisers of the art exhibition. Major Longden, D. 5.0., and Mr H. W. Maxwell, who are working under Sir Lawrence Weaver, have endeavoured to secure as many pictures as possible which are not well known and have seldom been exhibited from private galleries. A large central hall, supported by massive white pillars, is devoted to sculpture. A miniature cathedral, complete withside chapels and as large as many parish churches, will be one of the surprises in store for the visitor to Palace of Arts. It is entered from a corridor adjoining the sculpture gallery, guarded by massive metal gates, and will contain a marvellous exhibition of ecclesiastical art. The visitor will find himself in a basilica 1 , perfect in every detail. The wall of the apsidal sanctuary is covered with a 12ft frieze; the silk coverings of the high altar are being woven by Sir Frank Warner, and many other famous artists have contributed to the adornmentaof the chapels and nave.

A FAMOUS ROODLOFT. The roodloft from the Cathedral of St. John at Bois-le-Duc, in North Brabant, Holland, which was pulled down in 1866-67 and ultimately purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1871, has been moved from its old position in the Cast Court of the Museum and re-erected across the East Hall. This rich and sumptuous example of decorative architecture was erected in 1610-13 by Coenraet van Noremberg, of Namur, after the pattern of the roodloft in Antwept Cathedral, which is now destroyed. It is composed of red, black , and grey Belgian marbles, with figure sculpture and decoration in alabaster. The original contracts for the work, which are still preserved in the archieves at Bois-le-Duc, stipulate tbit some of this alabaster was to be English. The west side has figures of five Virtues (Faith, Charity, and Hope in the west face, Justice on the north, and Peace on the south); between these are four smaller figures, holding shields charged with the arms of Brabant, Duke Godfrey of Bouillon (the founder of Bois-le-Duc), the Archduke Albert and Isabella, and Bois-le-Duc. Small panels set under the balustrading are carved with scenes from the life of Christ, beginning with the Nativity and ending with the Ascension. This series is continued on the East side with the last Judgement and the Seven Coporal Works of Mercy. Above the pairs of columns which support the arches of the roodloft are statues of the Virgin and Child, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John the evangelist. This latter figure has been ascribed on the anology of the figures on the monument of William the Silent at Drelft, to the. Dutch sculpture Hendriek de Keyser (15651621), and it seems possible that the St. Peter and St. Paul may also be by him.

When first erected at South Kensington the roodloft was built against a wall, in surroundings which had become somewhat incongruous, without the east front. This front is now shown for the first time, and in its new position the splendour and elaboration of the whole work make it one of the most striking features of the Museum.